Not One Gun Control Law Would Have Stopped the Aurora, IL Shooter

Convicted of stabbing a woman, Gary Martin got a gun anyway and shot up a gun-free zone

The shooting today in Aurora, IL at a manufacturing plant that left 6 people dead including the shooter probably won't feed well into the left's narrative that universal background checks will stop mass shootings, or that mass shooters are always white guys, or that AR-15s need to go because... you know — mass shootings.

You see, Gary Martin (the shooter) was convicted in 1995 in Mississippi of felony assault in the stabbing of a woman. In other words, he was already a felon. At the very least, he would have been a 'prohibited person' and unable to buy a firearm legally by virtue of being unable to pass the background check. We've just learned that he was able to purchase a gun legally anyway. This means two things:

That he lied on his form 4473 when he was filling it out to make the purchase.

That the State of Mississippi or the FBI itself must have dropped the ball when it comes to placing him on the NICS Prohibited Persons list. Alternatively, it may mean that the State of Illinois made a mistake bad enough on his driver's license so that when a background check was run based on it, no pertinent information that would have precluded him from buying a gun came back.

Then there's the manufacturing plant where it happened: the Henry Pratt Company in Aurora. From conversations I've had with others from the area, it's simply not possible to get a blue-collar job anywhere remotely close to Chicago where they'll let you conceal carry a firearm on the job — or even a white-collar job, unless you're the owner of the company. Large companies will often have a security force and maybe even police doing regular drive-throughs, but a medium-sized one? Maybe not. So, what are the odds that this place was a gun-free zone?

Really, really high.(edit: see below. It has been confirmed to be a gun-free zone)

We'll keep away from the drama over the ridiculous, racist claim that all mass shooters are white. I won't dignify it with a diatribe about how all races are equally capable of good and bad deeds, but a small photo of Gary Martin is attached for reference.

Now, let's examine the slew of recent gun control bills pushed forth by the Illinois ultra-left to see if any of them would have stopped this shooting:

Serial numbers on bullets - No. Tracking bullets after the shooting has already happened has never saved one life, ever.

Banning 3D printed firearms - No. Hardly anyone is even attempting it at this point, especially not in the criminal world.

Banning 80% lowers - No. Criminals don't make their own guns, unless their name is JM Browning.

Limiting bullet purchases - No. It doesn't even sound like this guy even had more than a few magazines in the first place.

Checking social media accounts - No. It's pretty clear that Mr. Martin didn't undergo a background check, so checking his Facebook page would have been pointless.

Banning assault weapons - No. Buying a gun illegally has the nice benefit of allowing you to go with any features you like.

Extended waiting periods - No. Buying a gun illegally has another benefit of not requiring scrutiny by the law, thereby circumventing any waiting period the state wishes to impose.

The reality is that if Illinois passes any of the new gun control bills they're in the process of ramming down their subjects' throats, illegal gun purchases in the state are only going to go up, not down. This is what happens in every state with extreme gun control — make a thing illegal that people are going to do anyway, and you're absolutely going to get just as much of it as you had before — even though that thing is now illegal.

Updated Saturday, February 16, 2019

EDIT: This photo just emerged this morning, confirming what we all suspected: that The Henry Pratt Company in Aurora, IL was, in fact, a gun-free zone.

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“A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves…and include, according to the past and general usuage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms… "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."- Richard Henry Lee, Federal Farmer No. 18, January 25, 1788